DECISION ON HOME-RULE APPEAL BY DU PAGE IS LEFT TO KNUEPFER

Kerry LuftCHICAGO TRIBUNE

The decision on whether Du Page County will appeal a judicial ruling on home-rule status now appears to be solely up to County Board Chairman Jack Knuepfer.

The County Board, meeting for the last time before the deadline to file a notice of appeal, did not address the question on Tuesday. That means Knuepfer is the only person who can ask the Du Page state`s attorney`s office to file the notice before the May 29 deadline.

Knuepfer said Tuesday that he had not decided whether to appeal the case. Although half of the County Board members have said they oppose an appeal, Knuepfer said, ''I have to make the decision not on the basis of what the board says but on what I think is best for the county.''

Knuepfer has maintained that Du Page is and should be a home-rule county.

The appeal issue revolves around an April 27 decision by Du Page Circuit Judge Edward Duncan, who ruled that Du Page does not have home-rule status. Home rule gives counties broad powers to tax and institute programs without the approval of the General Assembly.

But earlier this year, county attorneys defending Du Page`s controversial impact fees said that the county could impose the fees partly because it was a home-rule county.

Aldo Botti, the Hinsdale lawyer who stunned Knuepfer in the Republican primary, sued the county, asking the courts to declare invalid the notion of home-rule status and Knuepfer`s contention that he is the county`s chief executive officer.

Duncan ruled in Botti`s favor.

Some County Board members tried to stop any chance of an appeal earlier this month by attempting to bring the issue to the board floor at the end of a meeting. Knuepfer allies circumvented the move by walking out of the meeting, leaving the board without a quorum.

But George Sotos, the assistant state`s attorney in charge of the case, last week informed the board that Knuepfer could appeal the ruling even without board approval because Knuepfer was named as a defendant in the suit. Because of that, a vote on the issue never came up.

''It would have been a moot point,'' said board member Michael Formento, who spearheaded the earlier movement to force a vote.

''Even if he did not receive the advice and consent of the board, which I doubt he would have received, he could ask for an appeal anyway,'' Formento said.